What's New in the August 2007 DirectX SDK
This version of the DirectX SDK contains the following new features, tools, and documentation.New Release Schedule
Starting after the August 2007 release of the DirectX SDK, Microsoft will deliver future updates four times per year. The next five releases now planned for delivery are:

August 2007

November 2007 (instead of October and December)

March 2008 (instead of February and April)

June 2008

August 2008

This delivery schedule will continue our strong track record of regularly releasing new features and tools, while allowing for longer technology development cycles.Direct3D 10.1 Tech Preview
Direct3D 10.1 is an incremental, side-by-side update to Direct3D 10.0 that provides a series of new rendering features that will be available in an upcoming generation of graphics hardware.

TextureCube Arrays which are dynamically indexable in shader code.

An updated shader model (shader model 4.1).

The ability to select the MSAA sample pattern for a resource from a palette of patterns, and retrieve the corresponding sample positions.

The ability to render to block-compressed textures.

More flexibility with respect to copying of resources.

Support for blending on all unorm and snorm formats.

This tech preview provides an early look at these features and the handful of new APIs that support them. The August 2007 Direct3D 10.1 Tech Preview requires the Windows Vista SP1 Beta which will be available to MSDN subscribers once it is publicly released.XAudio2 Beta: New Cross-Platform Audio API
The August release includes Beta 1 of XAudio2. XAudio2 is a new cross-platform audio API (Windows and Xbox 360) that is based on the Xbox 360 XAudio API. XAudio2 is a low-level audio signal processing library for Windows XP and Windows Vista providing a fully modern audio pipeline, including:

Multi-channel and surround-sound support with full per-channel volume and mapping control.

XAudio2 is designed to be the game-audio API that will replace DirectSound.Please visit the Microsoft Connect XAudio2 Beta website for feedback, bug reporting, links to discussion forums, and an audio feedback survey.XACT Session Windows
The XACT UI has a new feature, Session windows. Session windows allow a sound designer to create multiple virtual mixing consoles that are comprised of sounds and categories. By using a Session window, a sound designer can easily access volume controls for multiple sounds or categories with the look and feel of a multi-track mixing console. Sounds can be individually auditioned from the Session window. They can also display basic sound status, such as whether a sound is actively playing, or the number of instances of the sound. As part of the Session window functionality, auditioning Mute and Solo are now supported for categories, which allows sound designers to more easily mix sounds in their games.GDFTrace Tool
GDFTrace.exe is a new command-line tool that displays Game Explorer metadata contained in a binary and highlights any warnings.New and Updated Articles
This release has both new and updated articles.

Games for Windows Technical Requirements and Games for Windows Test Requirements have both been updated for the August 2007 release with some minor requirements changes, significant clarifications, and additional supporting material.

The article, Debugging with Symbols, provides a high level overview of how to best use symbols in your debugging process. It explains how to use the Microsoft symbol server, and also how to set up and use your own private symbol server. These best practices can help increase your effectiveness and ability to debug issues, even in cases where all the symbols and executable files that are related to a problem are not located on your computer.

New and Updated Samples
This release has both new and updated samples.

The XAudio2BasicSound sample demonstrates how to initialize the XAudio2 library and play a variety of sound files.

The ContentStreaming sample was rewritten to better demonstrate streaming content in the background. This is useful for applications that need to display more data than can fit in video or system RAM at any given time.

Known Issues with the August 2007 SDKXAudio2: Queries about Volume, Pitch, Frequency Ratio, and Filter Parameters May Not Return Currently Set Values
In the August 2007 and later SDKs, changing state (such as the volume, pitch, frequency ratio, filter parameters, and others) is deferred. The following methods will all return the most recently set value, even if that value hasn't yet been applied to the sounds.

IXAudio2Voice::GetChannelVolumes

IXAudio2Voice::GetOutputMatrix

IXAudio2Voice::GetVolume

IXAudio2SourceVoice::GetFilterParameters

IXAudio2SourceVoice::GetFrequencyRatio

In a future release of the SDK, these methods will return the values that are currently applied the sounds.Some Windows Vista Audio Drivers Are Not Compatible with XAudio2
In the August 2007 and later SDKs, some Windows Vista audio drivers are not compatible with XAudio2 and will generate errors, possibly including access violations. In a future release of the SDK, XAudio2 will be updated so that it is compatible with these audio drivers.Microsoft Cross-Platform Audio Creation Tool (XACT)
The Microsoft Cross-Platform Audio Creation Tool (XACT) has the following issues:

Users of XACT must explicitly create a new project (or open an existing one) before any object creation will be enabled. To create a new project after launching the authoring tool, select New Project from the File menu and specify the location and filename for the project.

The peak LED meters in the XACT auditioning monitor may get stuck. Users can choose to ignore this and let other playing content clear the stuck meters. As long as content is playing, the peak LED meters will eventually clear. Alternatively, users can right-click on the level meters and select Clear Clip LEDs.

To use the XACT user interface on Windows Vista, you must install the Microsoft .NET Framework 1.1. The .NET Framework can be downloaded from the Microsoft Download Center.

These issues will be fixed in a future release of the SDK.Members Added To The X3DAUDIO_EMITTER and X3DAUDIO_LISTENER Structures
Starting with the June 2007 SDK, two members, InnerRadius and InnerRadiusAngle, were added to the middle of the X3DAUDIO_EMITTER structure. Additionally, the pCone member was added to the X3DAUDIO_LISTENER structure. This change was done to enable listener cones and per-source inner-radius/elevation control in X3DAudio.HLSL Shader Compiler
The HLSL shader compiler has the following issues:

Setting a default value on a global boolean value may yield unexpected results or cause an access violation on D3D9 targets. To work around this, leave any boolean values uninitialized and use the Effects system to manually initialize the values.

" Shaders compiled with the IEEE-strict flag (/Gis for FXC or D3D10_SHADER_ENABLE_STRICTNESS for D3DX) may not function on older D3D10 drivers. If you encounter this issue, disable the IEEE-strictness flag when compiling, or update to the latest D3D10 driver.

If D3DXSHADER_USE_LEGACY_D3DX9_31_DLL is specified when obtaining the ID3DXEffectCompiler interface, subsequent calls to CompileEffect and CompileShader using this interface invoke the D3DX9_31 code. Newer compilation flags, such as the legacy flag itself, are not valid with these older methods. This behavior is as expected, and will not change in future releases.

These issues will be fixed in a future release of the SDK.DXGI: Cross-Process Shared Surfaces not Supported in the Reference Rasterizer
Cross-process shared surfaces are not supported when using the Reference Rasterizer. DirectX Extensions for Autodesk 3ds Max and Alias Maya Have Been Removed
Starting with the June 2007 SDK, the SDK no longer contains any of the extensions for Autodesk 3ds Max or Alias Maya.Direct3D 9 Only Version of DXUT Has Been Removed
Starting with the June 2007 SDK, the SDK no longers contain the Direct3D 9 only version of DXUT found at %DXSDK_DIR%\Samples\C++\Common. All Direct3D 9 samples now use the newer version of DXUT which supports Direct3D 9 and Direct3D 10. This new version can be found in the current SDK at %DXSDK_DIR%\Samples\C++\DXUT.Symbols for DirectX
The latest and most complete source for debugging symbols is the Microsoft Symbol Server. We recommend using the symbol server rather than using the included partial symbols package. For instructions on using the Microsoft Symbol Server, see http://www.microsoft.com/whdc/devtools/debugging/debugstart.mspx.Windows 95, Windows 98 and Windows ME Are Unsupported by the DirectX SDK
Starting with the December 2006 SDK, the DirectX SDK does not support targeting of applications for Windows 95, Windows 98, Windows 98 SE, or Windows ME. The D3DX DLL does not install or load on these legacy operating systems. To support these legacy operating systems, use the October 2006 SDK or an earlier version.Installation Notes for All Platforms

Before installing the current DirectX SDK, remove previous versions of the DirectX SDK.

Some samples require that you install the latest Microsoft Windows SDK (Platform SDK) on your system.

If you encounter compilation issues related to the DirectX headers, make sure that the include directories in Visual Studio are set correctly. On the Win32 platform, make sure that there is a reference to the DirectX headers. "$(DXSDK_DIR)include" should appear in the include directory "$(VCInstallDir)Include."

SDK Installation to a network share is not supported. Some components (documentation and managed samples) do not run.

Several virus protection software applications interfere with SDK installation. They may require you to disable virus protection software until SDK installation is completed.

If you encounter the error message "A cabinet file is necessary for installation and cannot be trusted" during installation, your system may be corrupted, or cryptographic services may be disabled. To resolve the problem, try the following:

Enable cryptographic services. On the Start menu, right-click My Computer, and then click Manage. The Computer Management window appears. In the left navigation pane, click Services and Applications. In the right pane, double click Services, and then double-click Cryptographic Services. The Cryptographic Services Properties property sheet appears. On the General tab, make sure that Service Status is Started, and that Startup Type is Automatic.

Remove temporary files in %temp%. If you are installing end-user runtime, also remove "%windir%\system32\directx\websetup Error."

External firewall programs may indicate that the file InstallDeveloperFiles.exe wants to access the Internet. This is by design, and should be enabled.

Installation Notes for Windows Vista
Running Microsoft_DirectX_SDK.msi instead of setup.exe requires that you run as administrator. If you install by using setup.exe instead of the MSI, you will be prompted for elevated permissions before the installation can succeed.Last Release of the DirectX SDK That Will Contain ....
This is the final release of the DirectX SDK that will contain the following components:

Direct3D8 and all of the earlier versions

Direct3D RM

DirectAnimation

DirectMusic

DirectInput7 and all of the earlier versions

DirectPlay

DirectPlayVoice

DirectX8-era HRESULT conversion routines

Managed DirectX samples and documentation

The next release of the DirectX SDK will not contain these components. Once the November 2007 DirectX SDK is released, developers wanting to use these components will need to download the August 2007 DirectX SDK, available from MSDN.
In addition, the November 2007 release of the DirectX SDK will contain an updated version of dxguid.lib that only includes the following components and associated classes: DirectXFile, DirectDraw, DirectInput, DirectSound, DxDiagProvider, XACT, D3D10, D3DX9, D3DX10, DXGI, D3D9, and D3DX9Ex.
The REDIST and Web DXSetup will not be affected by these changes.